Search results for: batch test automation

Authors: Lee Suan Chua

Abstract:

This study investigated the effects of thermal treatment on Tualang honey sample in terms of honey colour and heat-induced small metabolites. The heating process was carried out in a temperature controlled water batch at 90oC for 4 hours. The honey samples were put in cylinder tubes with the dimension of 1 cm diameter and 10 cm length for homogenous heat transfer. The results found that the thermal treatment produced not only hydroxylmethylfurfural, but also other harmful substances such as phthalic anhydride and radiolytic byproducts. The degradation of honey protein was due to the detection of free amino acids such as cysteine and phenylalanine in heat-treated honey samples. Sugar dehydration was also occurred because fragmented di-galactose was identified based on the presence of characteristic ions in the mass fragmentation pattern. The honey colour was found getting darker as the heating duration was increased up to 4 hours. Approximately, 60 mm PFund of increment was noticed for the honey colour with the colour change rate of 14.8 mm PFund per hour. Based on the principal component analysis, the score plot clearly shows that the chemical profile of Tualang honey was significantly altered after 2 hours of heating at 90oC.

Keywords: Honey colour, hydroxylmethylfurfural, thermal treatment, Tualang honey.

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Authors: Somayeh Negahdari, Mohsen Ghanbarzadeh, Masoud Nikbakht, Heshmatolah Tavakol

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Asthma, obesity and overweight are the main factors causing change within the heart and respiratory airways. Asthma symptoms are normally observed during exercising. Epidemiological studies have indicated asthma symptoms occurring due to certain lifestyle habits; for example, a sedentary lifestyle. In this study, eight weeks of aerobic exercises resulted in a positive effect overall in overweight women experiencing mild chronic asthma. The quasi-experimental applied research has been done based on experimental and control groups. The experimental group (seven patients) and control group (n = 7) were graded before and after the test. According to the Borg dyspnea and fatigue Perception Index, the training intensity has determined. Participants in the study performed a sub-maximal aerobic activity schedule (45% to 80% of maximum heart rate) for two months, while the control group (n = 7) stayed away from aerobic exercise. Data evaluation and analysis of covariance compared both the pre-test and post-test with paired t-test at significance level of P≤ 0.05. After eight weeks of exercise, the results of the experimental group show a significant decrease in resting heart rate, systolic blood pressure, minute ventilation, while a significant increase in maximal oxygen uptake and tolerance activity (P ≤ 0.05). In the control group, there was no significant difference in these parameters ((P ≤ 0.05). The results indicate the aerobic activity can strengthen the respiratory muscles, while other physiological factors could result in breathing and heart recovery. Aerobic activity also resulted in favorable changes in cardiovascular parameters, and exercise tolerance of overweight women with chronic asthma.

Keywords: Asthma, respiratory cardiac index, exercise tolerance, aerobic, overweight.

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Authors: Reza Ziaie Moayed, Ehsan Azini

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Jet grouting (JG) is one of the methods of improving and increasing the strength and bearing of soil in which the high pressure water or grout is injected through the nozzles into the soil. During this process, a part of the soil and grout particles comes out of the drill borehole, and the other part is mixed up with the grout in place, as a result of this process, a mass of modified soil is created. The purpose of this method is to change the soil into a mixture of soil and cement, commonly known as "soil-cement". In this paper, first, the principles of high pressure injection and then the effective parameters in the JG method are described. Then, the tests on the samples taken from the columns formed from the excavation around the soil-cement columns, as well as the static loading test on the created column, are discussed. In the other part of this paper, the soil behavior models for numerical modeling in PLAXIS software are mentioned. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the results of numerical modeling based on in-situ static loading tests. The results indicate an acceptable agreement between the results of the tests mentioned and the modeling results. Also, modeling with this software as an appropriate option for technical feasibility can be used to soil improvement using JG.

Keywords: Jet grouting column, Soil improvement, Numerical modeling, In-situ loading test.

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Authors: Syed Dawood Md. Taimur, Saidur Rahman Khan, Farzana Islam

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To evaluate the factors which predetermine the coronary artery disease in patients having positive Exercise Tolerance Test (ETT) that is treadmill results and coronary artery findings. This descriptive study was conducted at Department of Cardiology, Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital & Research Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh from 1st January, 2014 to 31st August, 2014. All patients who had done ETT (treadmill) for chest pain diagnosis were studied. One hundred and four patients underwent coronary angiogram after positive treadmill result. Patients were divided into two groups depending upon the angiographic findings, i.e. true positive and false positive. Positive treadmill test patients who have coronary artery involvement these are called true positive and who have no involvement they are called false positive group. Both groups were compared with each other. Out of 104 patients, 81 (77.9%) patients had true positive ETT and 23 (22.1%) patients had false positive ETT. The mean age of patients in positive ETT was 53.46± 8.06 years and male mean age was 53.63±8.36 years and female was 52.87±7.0 years. Sixty nine (85.19%) male patients and twelve (14.81%) female patients had true positive ETT, whereas 15 (65.21%) males and 8 (34.79%) females had false positive ETT, this was statistically significant (p<0.032) in the two groups (sex) in comparison of true and false positive ETT. The risk factors of these patients like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, family history and smoking were seen among these patients. Hypertensive patients having true positive which were statistically significant (p<0.004) and diabetic, dyslipidemic patients having true positive which were statistically significant (p<0.032 & 0.030).True positive patients had family history were 68(83.95%) and smoking were 52 (64.20%), where family history patients had statistically significant (p<0.017) between two groups of patients and smokers were significant (p<0.012). 46 true positive patients achieved THR which was not statistically significant (P<0.138) and 79 true patients had abnormal resting ECG whether it was significant (p<0.036). Amongst the vessels involvement the most common was LAD 55 (67.90 %) followed by LCX 42 (51.85%), RCA 36 (44.44%), and the LMCA was 9 (11.11%). 40 patients (49.38%) had SVD, 26 (30.10%) had DVD, 15(18.52%) had TVD and 23 had normal coronary arteries. It can be concluded that among the female patients who have positive ETT with normal resting ECG, who had achieved target heart rate are likely to have a false positive test result. Conversely male patients, resting abnormal ECG who had not achieved THR, symptom limited ETT, have a hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, family history and smoking are likely to have a true positive treadmill test result.

Keywords: Exercise tolerance test, Coronary artery disease, Coronary angiography, True positive, False positive.

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Authors: A. Magesh, B. Preetha, T. Viruthagiri

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Direct fermentation of 226 white rose tapioca stem to ethanol by Fusarium oxysporum was studied in a batch reactor. Fermentation of ethanol can be achieved by sequential pretreatment using dilute acid and dilute alkali solutions using 100 mesh tapioca stem particles. The quantitative effects of substrate concentration, pH and temperature on ethanol concentration were optimized using a full factorial central composite design experiment. The optimum process conditions were then obtained using response surface methodology. The quadratic model indicated that substrate concentration of 33g/l, pH 5.52 and a temperature of 30.13oC were found to be optimum for maximum ethanol concentration of 8.64g/l. The predicted optimum process conditions obtained using response surface methodology was verified through confirmatory experiments. Leudeking-piret model was used to study the product formation kinetics for the production of ethanol and the model parameters were evaluated using experimental data.

Keywords: Fusarium oxysporum, Lignocellulosic biomass, Product formation kinetics, Statistical experimental design

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Authors: Cuneyt Yucelbas, Seral Ozsen, Sule Yucelbas, Gulay Tezel

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Due to the fact that there exist only a small number of complex systems in artificial immune system (AIS) that work out nonlinear problems, nonlinear AIS approaches, among the well-known solution techniques, need to be developed. Gaussian function is usually used as similarity estimation in classification problems and pattern recognition. In this study, diagnosis of breast cancer, the second type of the most widespread cancer in women, was performed with different distance calculation functions that euclidean, gaussian and gaussian-euclidean hybrid function in the clonal selection model of classical AIS on Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset (WBCD), which was taken from the University of California, Irvine Machine-Learning Repository. We used 3-fold cross validation method to train and test the dataset. According to the results, the maximum test classification accuracy was reported as 97.35% by using of gaussian-euclidean hybrid function for fold-3. Also, mean of test classification accuracies for all of functions were obtained as 94.78%, 94.45% and 95.31% with use of euclidean, gaussian and gaussian-euclidean, respectively. With these results, gaussian-euclidean hybrid function seems to be a potential distance calculation method, and it may be considered as an alternative distance calculation method for hard nonlinear classification problems.

Keywords: Artificial Immune System, Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Euclidean Function, Gaussian Function.

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Authors: Hani Almimi, Ola Osabi, Azman Samsudin

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Many attempts have been made to strengthen Feistel based block ciphers. Among the successful proposals is the key- dependent S-box which was implemented in some of the high-profile ciphers. In this paper a key-dependent permutation box is proposed and implemented on DES as a case study. The new modified DES, MDES, was tested against Diehard Tests, avalanche test, and performance test. The results showed that in general MDES is more resistible to attacks than DES with negligible overhead. Therefore, it is believed that the proposed key-dependent permutation should be considered as a valuable primitive that can help strengthen the security of Substitution-Permutation Network which is a core design in many Feistel based block ciphers.

Keywords: Block Cipher, Feistel Structure, DES, Diehard Tests, Avalanche Effect.

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Authors: Marzieh Dosti, Alireza Nazemi

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Recently, it is found that telegraph equation is more suitable than ordinary diffusion equation in modelling reaction diffusion for such branches of sciences. In this paper, a numerical solution for the one-dimensional hyperbolic telegraph equation by using the collocation method using the septic splines is proposed. The scheme works in a similar fashion as finite difference methods. Test problems are used to validate our scheme by calculate L2-norm and L∞-norm. The accuracy of the presented method is demonstrated by two test problems. The numerical results are found to be in good agreement with the exact solutions.

Keywords: B-spline, collocation method, second-order hyperbolic telegraph equation, difference schemes.

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Authors: O. O. Olawusi-Peters, K. I. Adejugbagbe

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The concentration of heavy metal (Cd, Pb, Fe, Zn, Cu) in Clarias gariepinus collected from fish markets; Fanibi (Station I) and Fiwasaye (Station II) in Akure metropolis, Ondo state, Nigeria were investigated to ascertain the safety for the consumers. 60 samples were collected from the two markets in three batches (I, II, III) for a period of six months and analyzed for heavy metals in the gills and muscles of the fish. Also, the Health Risk Index (HRI) was used to determine the health risk of these metals to the consumer. The results showed that the investigated metal concentration was higher in station I than station II, except Pb having higher concentration in station II than station I. In both stations, the highest concentration of Fe was recorded in the gills (12.60 ± 1.51; 6.94 ± 1.38) and muscles (3.72 ± 0.09; 3.86 ± 0.33) of samples in batch I. Also, the HRI revealed that consumption of Clarias gariepinus from these study areas did not pose any health risk (HRI < 1). In addition, concentrations of the heavy metals were all below the permissible limits recommended by FAO/WHO.

Keywords: Health risk index, heavy metals, Clarias gariepinus, Akure metropolis, fish monger.

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Authors: Vasile Marinescu, Ionut Clementin Constantin, Alexandru Epureanu, Virgil Teodor

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The Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) plays a vital role in automation and process control. Grafcet is used for representing the control logic, and traditional programming languages are used for describing the pure algorithms. Grafcet is used for dividing the process to be automated in elementary sequences that can be easily implemented. Each sequence represent a step that has associated actions programmed using textual or graphical languages after case. The programming task is simplified by using a set of subroutines that are used in several steps. The paper presents an example of implementation for a punching machine for sheets and plates. The use the graphical languages the programming of a complex sequential process is a necessary solution. The state of Grafcet can be used for debugging and malfunction determination. The use of the method combined with a set of knowledge acquisition for process application reduces the downtime of the machine and improve the productivity.

Keywords: Grafcet, Petrinet, PLC, punching.

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Authors: C. Thanga Raj, S. P. Srivastava, Pramod Agarwal

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This paper presents an optimal design of poly-phase induction motor using Quadratic Interpolation based Particle Swarm Optimization (QI-PSO). The optimization algorithm considers the efficiency, starting torque and temperature rise as objective function (which are considered separately) and ten performance related items including harmonic current as constraints. The QI-PSO algorithm was implemented on a test motor and the results are compared with the Simulated Annealing (SA) technique, Standard Particle Swarm Optimization (SPSO), and normal design. Some benchmark problems are used for validating QI-PSO. From the test results QI-PSO gave better results and more suitable to motor-s design optimization. Cµ code is used for implementing entire algorithms.

Keywords: Design, harmonics, induction motor, particle swarm optimization

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Authors: C. Shih, J. R. Wang, H. C. Chang, S. W. Chen, S. C. Chiang, T. Y. Yu

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After the measurement uncertainty recapture (MUR) power uprates, Kuosheng nuclear power plant (NPP) was uprated the power from 2894 MWt to 2943 MWt. For power upgrade, several codes (e.g., TRACE, RELAP5, etc.) were applied to assess the safety of Kuosheng NPP. Hence, the main work of this research is to establish a RELAP5/MOD3.3 model of Kuosheng NPP with SNAP interface. The establishment of RELAP5/SNAP model was referred to the FSAR, training documents, and TRACE model which has been developed and verified before. After completing the model establishment, the startup test scenarios would be applied to the RELAP5/SNAP model. With comparing the startup test data and TRACE analysis results, the applicability of RELAP5/SNAP model would be assessed.

Keywords: RELAP5, TRACE, SNAP, BWR.

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Authors: Hazly Amir, Roime Puniran

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This paper will present the implementation of QoS policy based system by utilizing rules on Access Control List (ACL) over Layer 3 (L3) switch. Also presented is the architecture on that implementation; the tools being used and the result were gathered. The system architecture has an ability to control ACL rules which are installed inside an external L3 switch. ACL rules used to instruct the way of access control being executed, in order to entertain all traffics through that particular switch. The main advantage of using this approach is that the single point of failure could be prevented when there are any changes on ACL rules inside L3 switches. Another advantage is that the agent could instruct ACL rules automatically straight away based on the changes occur on policy database without configuring them one by one. Other than that, when QoS policy based system was implemented in distributed environment, the monitoring process can be synchronized easily due to the automate process running by agent over external policy devices.

Keywords: QOS, ACL, L3 Switch.

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Authors: F. Rashno Seydari, M. Nikafrooz

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This paper intends to study needs analysis of hearing-impaired students’ teachers in elementary schools all over Iran. The subjects of this study were 275 teachers who were teaching hearing-impaired students in elementary schools. The participants were selected by a quota sampling method. To collect the data, questionnaires of training needs consisting of 41 knowledge items and 31 performance items were used. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software in the form of descriptive analyses (frequency and mean) and inferential analyses (one sample t-test, paired t-test, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient). The findings of the study indicated that teachers generally have considerable needs in knowledge and performance domains. In 32 items out of the total 41 knowledge domain items and in the 27 items out of the total 31 performance domain items, the teachers had considerable needs. From the quantitative point of view, the needs of the performance domain were more than those of the knowledge domain, so they have to be considered as the first priority in training these teachers. There was no difference between the level of the needs of male and female teachers. There was a significant difference between the knowledge and performance domain needs and the teachers’ teaching experience, 0.354 and 0.322 respectively. The teachers who had been trained in working with hearing-impaired students expressed more training needs (both knowledge and performance).

Keywords: Needs analysis, hearing impaired students, hearing impaired students’ teachers, knowledge domain, performance domain.

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Authors: Wen Po Cheng, Chia Yun Chung, Ruey Fang Yu, Chao Feng Chen

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The main objective of this research was to study the differences of aluminum hydrolytic products between two PACl preparation methods. These two methods were the acidification process of freshly formed amorphous Al(OH)₃ and the conventional alkalization process of aluminum chloride solution. According to Ferron test and ²⁷Al NMR analysis of those two PACl preparation procedures, the reaction rate constant (k) values and Al₁₃ percentage of acid addition process at high basicity value were both lower than those values of the alkaline addition process. The results showed that the molecular structure and size distribution of the aluminum species in both preparing methods were suspected to be significantly different at high basicity value.

Keywords: Polyaluminum chloride, Al13, amorphous aluminum hydroxide, Ferron test.

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Authors: Saeed Hosseini, Ali Reza Tahavvor

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Sound processing is one the subjects that newly attracts a lot of researchers. It is efficient and usually less expensive than other methods. In this paper the flow generated sound is used to estimate the flow speed of free flows. Many sound samples are gathered. After analyzing the data, a parameter named wave power is chosen. For all samples the wave power is calculated and averaged for each flow speed. A curve is fitted to the averaged data and a correlation between the wave power and flow speed is found. Test data are used to validate the method and errors for all test data were under 10 percent. The speed of the flow can be estimated by calculating the wave power of the flow generated sound and using the proposed correlation.

Keywords: Flow generated sound, sound processing, speed, wave power.

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Authors: Xin Wang, Yuanzhong Wang

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Pipa is one of the most important Chinese traditional plucked instruments, but its directivity has never been measured systematically. In western, directivity of loudness for western instruments is deeply researched through analysis of sound pressure level, whereas the directivity of timbre is seldom studied. In this paper, a new method for directivity of timbre was proposed, and horizontal directivity patterns of loudness and timbre of Pipa were measured. Directivity of Pipa radiation was measured in an anechoic room. The sound of Pipa played by a musician was recorded simultaneously by 32 microphones with Pipa in the center. The measuring results were examined through listening test. According to the measurement of Pipa directivity radiation, we put forward the best localization of Pipa in the Chinese traditional orchestra and the optimal recording region.

Keywords: Directivity, Pipa, Roughness, Listening test.

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Authors: Amit Sachan

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The network designing and data modeling developments which are the two significant research tasks in direction to tolerate power control of Microgrid concluded using IEC 61850 data models and facilities. The current casing areas of IEC 61580 include infrastructures in substation automation systems, among substations and to DERs. So, for LV microgrid power control, previously using the IEC 61850 amenities to control the smart electrical devices, we have to model those devices as IEC 61850 data models and design a network topology to maintenance all-in-one communiqué amid those devices. In adding, though IEC 61850 assists modeling a portion by open-handed several object models for common functions similar measurement, metering, monitoring…etc., there are motionless certain missing smithereens for building a multiplicity of functions for household appliances like tuning the temperature of an electric heater or refrigerator.

Keywords: IEC 61850, RCMC, HCMC, DER Unit Controller.

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Authors: M. V. A. Raju Bahubalendruni, Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal, B. B. V. L. Deepak

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Achieving an appropriate assembly sequence needs deep verification for its physical feasibility. For this purpose, industrial engineers use several assembly predicates; namely, liaison, geometric feasibility, stability and mechanical feasibility. However, testing an assembly sequence for these predicates requires huge assembly information. Extracting such assembly information from an assembled product is a time consuming and highly skillful task with complex reasoning methods. In this paper, computer aided methods are proposed to extract all the necessary assembly information from computer aided design (CAD) environment in order to perform the assembly sequence planning efficiently. These methods use preliminary capabilities of three-dimensional solid modelling and assembly modelling methods used in CAD software considering equilibrium laws of physical bodies.

Keywords: Assembly automation, assembly attributes, assembly sequence generation, computer aided design.

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Authors: E. Doğan, B. Kekezoğlu

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Voltage level must be raised in order to deliver the produced energy to the consumption zones with less loss and less cost. Power transformers used to raise or lower voltage are important parts of the energy transmission system. Power transformers used in switchgear and power generation plants stay in human's intensive habitat zones as a result of expanding cities. Accordingly, noise levels produced by power transformers have begun more and more important and they have established itself as one of the research field. In this research, the noise cause on transformers has been investigated, it's causes has been examined and noise measurement techniques have been introduced. Examples of transformer noise test results are submitted and precautions to be taken were discussed for the purpose of decreasing of the noise which will occurred by transformers.

Keywords: Power transformer, noise measurement, core noise, load noise, fan-pump noise.

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Authors: Fetah Eren, Ismail Sahin, Ismail Celik, Ahmet Oguz Akturk

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The aim of this study is to discover secondary school students’ perceptions related to information technologies and the connections between concepts in their cognitive structures. A word association test consisting of six concepts related to information technologies is used to collect data from 244 secondary school students. Concept maps that present students’ cognitive structures are drawn with the help of frequency data. Data are analyzed and interpreted according to the connections obtained as a result of the concept maps. It is determined students associate most with these concepts—computer, Internet, and communication of the given concepts, and associate least with these concepts—computer-assisted education and information technologies. These results show the concepts, Internet, communication, and computer, are an important part of students’ cognitive structures. In addition, students mostly answer computer, phone, game, Internet and Facebook as the key concepts. These answers show students regard information technologies as a means for entertainment and free time activity, not as a means for education.

Keywords: Word association test, cognitive structure, information technology, secondary school.

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Authors: Vilasinee Jintalikhitdee, Phusit Phukamchanoad, Sakapas Saengchai

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This research aims to study the level of democratic political culture and the factors that affect the democratic political culture of 5^th and 6^th graders under the authority of Dusit District Office, Bangkok by using stratified sampling for probability sampling and using purposive sampling for non-probability sampling to collect data toward the distribution of questionnaires to 300 respondents. This covers all of the schools under the authority of Dusit District Office. The researcher analyzed the data by using descriptive statistics which include arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics which are Independent Samples T-test (T-test) and One-Way ANOVA (F-test). The researcher also collected data by interviewing the target groups, and then analyzed the data by the use of descriptive analysis. The result shows that 5^th and 6^th graders under the authority of Dusit District Office, Bangkok have exposed to democratic political culture at high level in overall. When considering each part, it found out that the part that has highest mean is “the constitutional democratic governmental system is suitable for Thailand” statement. The part with the lowest mean is “corruption (cheat and defraud) is normal in Thai society” statement. The factor that affects democratic political culture is grade levels, occupations of mothers, and attention in news and political movements.

Keywords: Democratic, Political Culture.

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Authors: S. Abdulsalam, A. D. I. Suleiman, N. M. Musa, M. Yusuf

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Environment free of pollutants should be the concern of every individual but with industrialization and urbanization it is difficult to achieve. In view of achieving a pollution limited environment at low cost, a study was conducted on the use of bioremediation technology to remediate hydrocarbons and three heavy metals namely; copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) from a typical petroleum refinery wastewater in a closed system. Physicochemical and microbiological characteristics on the wastewater sample revealed that it was polluted with the aforementioned pollutants. Isolation and identification of microorganisms present in the wastewater sample revealed the presence of Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Bioremediation experiments carried out on five batch reactors with different compositions but at same environmental conditions revealed that treatment T5 (boosted with the association of Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus) gave the best result in terms of oil and grease content removal (i.e. 67% in 63 days). In addition, these microorganisms were able of reducing the concentrations of heavy metals in the sample. Treatments T5, T3 (boosted with Bacillus subtilis only) and T4 (boosted with Micrococcus luteus only) gave optimum percentage uptakes of 65, 75 and 25 for Cu, Zn and Fe respectively.

Keywords: Boosted, bioremediation, closed system, aeration, uptake, wastewater.

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Authors: Alaa Hussein Wadi

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The principal objective of a water treatment plant is to produce water that satisfies a set of drinking water quality standards at a reasonable price to the consumers. The gravel-bed flocculator provide a simple and inexpensive design for flocculation in small water treatment plants (less than 5000 m3/day capacity). The packed bed of gravel provides ideal conditions for the formation of compact settleable flocs because of continuous recontact provided by the sinuous flow of water through the interstices formed by the gravel. The field data which were obtained from the operation of the water supply treatment unit cover the physical, chemical and biological water qualities of the raw and settled water as obtained by the operation of the treatment unit. The experiments were carried out with the aim of assessing the efficiency of the gravel filter in removing the turbidity, pathogenic bacteria, from the raw water. The water treatment plant, which was constructed for the treatment of river water, was in principle a rapid sand filter. The results show that the average value of the turbidity level of the settled water was 4.83 NTU with a standard deviation of turbidity 2.893 NTU. This indicated that the removal efficiency of the sedimentation tank (gravel filter) was about 67.8 %. for pH values fluctuated between 7.75 and 8.15, indicating the alkaline nature of the raw water of the river Shatt Al-Hilla, as expected. Raw water pH is depressed slightly following alum coagulation. The pH of the settled water ranged from 7.75 to a maximum of 8.05. The bacteriological tests which were carried out on the water samples were: total coliform test, E-coli test, and the plate count test. In each test the procedure used was as outlined in the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (APHA, AWWA, and WPCF, 1985). The gravel filter exhibit a low performance in removing bacterial load. The percentage bacterial removal, which is maximum for total plate count (19%) and minimum for total coliform (16.82%).

Keywords: Gravel bed flocculator, turbidity, total coliform.

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Authors: Afonso, S. C., Fernandes, P. O., Monte, A. P.

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Modern times call organizations to have an active role in the social arena, through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that there is a positive relation between social performance and economic performance, and if there is a positive correlation between social performance and financial-economic performance. To test these theories a measure of social performance, based on the Green Book of Commission of the European Community, was used in a group of nineteen Portuguese top companies, listed on the PSI 20 index, through a period of five years, since 2005 to 2009. A clusters analysis was applied to group companies by their social performance and to compare and correlate their economic performance. Results indicate that companies that had a better social performance are not the ones who had a better economic performance, and suggest that the middle path might provide a good relation CSR-Economic performance, as a basis to a sustainable development.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Performance, Win-Win relationship

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Authors: Chandrakala Varatharajoo, Adelina Binti Asmawi, Nabeel Abdallah Mohammad Abedalaziz

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This study investigated the impact of inflectional and derivational morphemic analysis awareness on ESL secondary school students’ vocabulary learning strategy. The quasi-experimental study was conducted with 106 low proficiency secondary school students in two experimental groups (inflectional and derivational) and one control group. The students’ vocabulary acquisition was assessed through two measures: Morphemic Analysis Test and Vocabulary- Morphemic Test in the pretest and posttest before and after an intervention programme. Results of ANCOVA revealed that both the experimental groups achieved a significant score in Morphemic Analysis Test and Vocabulary-Morphemic Test. However, the inflectional group obtained a fairly higher score than the derivational group. Thus, the results indicated that ESL low proficiency secondary school students performed better on inflectional morphemic awareness as compared to derivatives. The results also showed that the awareness of inflectional morphology contributed more on the vocabulary acquisition. Importantly, learning inflectional morphology can help ESL low proficiency secondary school students to develop both morphemic awareness and vocabulary gain. Theoretically, these findings show that not all morphemes are equally useful to students for their language development. Practically, these findings indicate that morphological instruction should at least be included in remediation and instructional efforts with struggling learners across all grade levels, allowing them to focus on meaning within the word before they attempt the text in large for better comprehension. Also, by methodologically, by conducting individualized intervention and assessment this study provided fresh empirical evidence to support the existing literature on morphemic analysis awareness and vocabulary learning strategy. Thus, a major pedagogical implication of the study is that morphemic analysis awareness strategy is a definite boon for ESL secondary school students in learning English vocabulary.

Keywords: ESL, instruction, morphemic analysis, vocabulary.

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Authors: M. S. Mahmoud

Abstract:

This study was conducted to evaluate the manganese removal from aqueous solution using Banana peels activated carbon (BPAC). Batch experiments have been carried out to determine the influence of parameters such as pH, biosorbent dose, initial metal ion concentrations and contact times on the biosorption process. From these investigations, a significant increase in percentage removal of manganese 97.4% is observed at pH value 5.0, biosorbent dose 0.8 g, initial concentration 20 ppm, temperature 25 ± 2°C, stirring rate 200 rpm and contact time 2h. The equilibrium concentration and the adsorption capacity at equilibrium of the experimental results were fitted to the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models; the Langmuir isotherm was found to well represent the measured adsorption data implying BPAC had heterogeneous surface. A raw groundwater samples were collected from Baharmos groundwater treatment plant network at Embaba and Manshiet Elkanater City/District-Giza, Egypt, for treatment at the best conditions that reached at first phase by BPAC. The treatment with BPAC could reduce iron and manganese value of raw groundwater by 91.4% and 97.1%, respectively and the effect of the treatment process on the microbiological properties of groundwater sample showed decrease of total bacterial count either at 22°C or at 37°C to 85.7% and 82.4%, respectively. Also, BPAC was characterized using SEM and FTIR spectroscopy.

Keywords: Biosorption, banana peels, isothermal models, manganese.

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Authors: M. H. Korayem, K. Khoshhal, H. Aliakbarpour

Abstract:

In this paper, a vision based system has been used for controlling an industrial 3P Cartesian robot. The vision system will recognize the target and control the robot by obtaining images from environment and processing them. At the first stage, images from environment are changed to a grayscale mode then it can diverse and identify objects and noises by using a threshold objects which are stored in different frames and then the main object will be recognized. This will control the robot to achieve the target. A vision system can be an appropriate tool for measuring errors of a robot in a situation where the experimental test is conducted for a 3P robot. Finally, the international standard ANSI/RIA R15.05-2 is used for evaluating the path-related characteristics of the robot. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method experimental test is carried out.

Keywords: Robot, Vision, Experiment, Standard.

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Authors: H. Zengin, M. E. Turan, Y. Turen, H. Ahlatci, Y. Sun

Abstract:

This study aimed for improving wear resistance of AM60 magnesium alloy by Ti addition (0, 0.2, 0.5, 1wt%Ti). An electric resistance furnace was used to produce alloys. Pure Mg together with Al, Al-Ti and Al-Mn were melted at 750 ⁰C in a stainless steel crucible under controlled Ar gas atmosphere and then poured into a metal mould preheated at 250 ⁰C. Microstructure characterizations were performed by light optical (LOM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) after the wear test. Wear rates and friction coefficients were measured with a pin-on-disk type UTS-10 Tribometer test device under a load of 20N. The results showed that Ti addition altered the morphology and the amount of b-Mg₁₇Al₁₂ phase in the microstructure of AM60 alloy. b-Mg₁₇Al₁₂ phases on the grain boundaries were refined with increasing amount of Ti. An improvement in wear resistance of AM60 alloy was observed due to the alteration in the microstructure by Ti addition.

Keywords: Magnesium alloy, titanium, SEM, wear.

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Authors: Antônio P. de Araújo Neto, Ruy D. A. da Silva Neto, Juliana R. de Souza, Salete K. P. de Medeiros, João T. N. de Medeiros

Abstract:

The tribological test with Pin-On-Disc configuration measures friction and wear properties in dry or lubricated sliding surfaces of a variety of materials and coatings. Polymeric matrix composites loaded with mineral filler were used, 1%, 3%, 10%, 30%, and 50% mass percentage of filler, to reduce the material cost by using mineral tailings. Using a pin-on-disc tribometer to quantify coefficient of friction and wear resistance of the specimens. The parameters known to performing the test were 300 rpm rotation, normal load of 16N and duration of 33.5 minutes. The composite with 10% mineral filler performed better, considering that the wear resistance was good when compared to the other compositions and an average low coefficient of friction, in the order of μ ≤ 0.15.

Keywords: Microcomposites, microparticles tailings of scheelite, PTFE, tribology.

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